Hard-core libertarians sometimes point out that thieves and tax bureaucracies have a lot in common. Both use the threat of force and punishment to take money from unwilling victims.
There’s a lot of truth to that comparison. I give money to the IRS every year for the same reason that I would hand over my wallet to a gun-toting criminal.
I don’t want to surrender my earnings, of course, but the consequences of non-compliance are very high.
However, I don’t rely on this comparison when debating tax policy because a clever leftist will point out that it implies anarcho-capitalism (i.e, if all taxes are theft, that means no government).
That being said, sometimes there truly is no difference between the behavior of thieves and the behavior of bureaucrats.
Jacob Sullum’s column in Reason reveals a nauseating example of theft-by-government, which involves a sheriff’s department in California brazenly stealing the revenue of legal marijuana businesses.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies stopped Empyreal vans three times in November, December, and January. They seized cash during two of the stops, making off with a total of more than $1 million, which was transferred to the FBI so the Justice Department could pursue forfeiture under federal law. If the government prevails in those forfeiture proceedings, the sheriff’s department will get to keep up to 80 percent of the money under the Justice Department’s “equitable sharing” program. The earnings of state-licensed marijuana suppliers are not subject to forfeiture under California law. …Empyreal argues that the traffic stops were pretextual: ostensibly justified by minor traffic violations but actually aimed at generating revenue for the sheriff’s department. Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Franco claimed the November 16 stop, which resulted in the seizure of $712,000, was justified because the Empyreal van was following a tractor-trailer too closely. When the same deputies pulled over the same vehicle, driven by the same employee, on December 9, according to the lawsuit that Empyreal filed on January 14, they claimed the driver “slightly exceeded the speed limit and prematurely activated his turn signal.”
The article gets into some of the legal details, such as the armored-car company (Empyreal) trying to get a restraining order against the thieving bureaucrats.
All of which is important, I’m sure, but I can’t help but focus on the utterly venal actions of the San Bernardino County Sheriff (as well as the FBI, the Justice Department, and anyone else involved).
I understand that some people don’t like that there are legal marijuana suppliers in California. But that doesn’t mean that a local law enforcement bureaucracy has the right to engage in (quite literally) highway robbery.
So what’s the bottom line?
Because I believe in the rule of law, nobody should be subject to civil asset forfeiture (a.k.a., “policing for profit“), a reprehensible practice that allows governments to steal property without a finding of guilt.
Even real criminals shouldn’t be punished until and unless they are convicted. But it’s even more disgusting when people engaging in completely legal behavior are targeted.
P.S. Here’s an amusing example of the shoe being on the other foot.
P.P.S. It’s worth noting that the first two directors of the Justice Department’s program on asset forfeiture have since come out against the practice. Redemption is good for the soul.
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Image credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement | Public Domain.
